Tour keeps looking at expanding winners-only field at Kapalua

Caddie Ted Scott, left, holds the pin over the hole as Webb Simpson putts on the 11th green during the third round of the Tournament of Champions golf tournament, Sunday in Kapalua, Maui.

KAPALUA, Maui >> The debate going on for years at Kapalua is whether bigger means better.

PGA
Tour officials showed up on Maui equipped with research on how the
winners-only field could be expanded for the Tournament of Champions.
But let's be honest. This has more to do with names than numbers.

One name in particular comes to mind: Tiger Woods.

Woods
hasn't played since 2005, which is his prerogative. Phil Mickelson
hasn't played since 2001, though there have been island sightings of
Lefty on vacation. At least this week he was spotted in Cincinnati to
watch the San Diego Chargers.

It's a mystery why Woods doesn't
play Kapalua because the Plantation Course requires so much more
imagination, and it's a course where how the ball reacts on the ground
is far more important than what it does in the air. It's a fun place to
play. And he won here in that magnificent battle with Ernie Els. But
it's a long year, and Woods finds the winter to be the best chunk of
time to get away. That's why the European Tour members who play deep
into the season tend not to come to Hawaii (Rory McIlroy last year,
Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson this year).

But take a
close look at the 30-man field this year and ask any PGA Tour event if
it would take this list of players -- Masters champion Adam Scott, Dustin
Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker, PGA champion Jason Dufner, Webb
Simpson and 20-year-old sensation Jordan Spieth.

And with
apologies to the PGA Grand Slam of Golf -- four major champions, 36
holes, sheer exhibition -- this is the most difficult tournament to get
in.

"It's the only one that's winners-only, right?" Humana
Challenge winner Brian Gay said. "It's different. It should be. It's
always been different. I've heard people kicking around a two-year
exemption, where you win and get in here for two years. That's not a
terrible idea that way. But I think it's cool the way it is."

The
reason an expanded field is getting traction this year is because of the
number of proven players who aren't here. It's harder than ever to win
on the PGA Tour. Steve Stricker had one of his most consistent years
ever, but he didn't win. Neither did Hunter Mahan, Keegan Bradley, Jim
Furyk and Jason Day.

The options the tour is considering are a
two-year exemption to Kapalua for winning or inviting the field from the
Tour Championship. The latter would require a slight tweak for the
FedEx Cup playoff points, and those changes likely are coming for the
2014-15 season.

There were 12 players at the Tour Championship who
didn't win, nine of whom most likely would have come to Kapalua. That
list includes Stricker, Bradley, Day, Furyk and Mahan, along with
Brendon de Jonge and Roberto Castro.

The field from East Lake
already is assured a spot in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open.
Isn't that enough? And would a 39-man field at Kapalua be that much
different from the 30-man field this week?

"I think it should stay
the same," Scott said. "It would be a shame to change it. Some things
have to change, other things should stick with what they are. My feeling
would be it would lose some of the gloss on the tournament if it was
not the Tournament of Champions. What should you call it then?"

OK, so let's look at Plan B -- the two-year exemption.

To
include all the 2012 and 2013 winners would make an additional 25
players eligible for Kapalua. That includes Stricker, Bradley, Mahan and
Day, along with the likes of Els, Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler. It
also would include a dozen guys who don't bring a lot of star power.
Five players from that list, such as McIlroy, Ian Poulter and Sergio
Garcia, probably wouldn't make the trip, anyway.

That would make for a 50-man field, and create more confusion than is necessary.

Golfweek
magazine surveyed all 30 players this year on the possibility of
change, and roughly two-thirds wanted the qualifications to stay the way
they are. The decision ultimately would be made by the PGA Tour, with
title sponsor Hyundai and even Kapalua weighing in.

"We have on a
few occasions done some scheming," said Steve Shannon, vice president of
marketing for Hyundai Motor America. "We always come back around to
there's something unique and special about only winners. Certain guys
choose not to play here, but we're pretty pleased with a stricter and
more consistent criteria for getting in.

"Let's be honest," he
said. "There's a lot of tournaments on tour. Some are special in some
ways. That's something that really makes this one different."

Golf
in an era of points -- world ranking points, FedEx Cup points, Ryder Cup
points. No math is required to figure out why someone is at Kapalua.

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